Yes, as Prizm suggest, most lifting athletes (Pl'ers & Olympic lifters) use assistance movements, as part of their training. Including gymnast and track and field athletes. Even the Chinese Ping Pong team's included squats in their training programs. DB joint extensions exercises are also very important. This would include front, side and rear DB work. Some even use manual resistance from their coaches.

If wanting to follow another dimension for front and side raises, than rather then only going to shoulder height, continue to completely overhead. Above shoulder height the traps are called upon strongly, also the shoulder joints and flexibility can be improved. Quite a lot of shoulder problems can be traced to lack of joint/muscle flexibility/stiffness. Lower slowly and in control from the overhead position. Good Luck.

Not true. There's a big thread somewhere on Pendlay's forum about a guy that went to China to train with the Olympic lifters. They swear by leg extensions for knee health and also do a lot of 'bodybuilder' work after training their main lifts. Below is gold medalist Lu Xiaojun hitting some laterals for example:

I had to go to physical therapy in the last couple years to figure out a scapular instability issue. I worked with a few PT's that regularly work with MLB players to remedy their shoulder problems, and the first thing they had me do was a lot of front/side/rear raises. It was just one piece of my overall program that rehabbed my shoulder, but I definitely notice a difference not doing them at least in a warmup before pressing work. My shoulder feels normal the first time in 7+ years doing this.

And on a broscience note, my front delts 'pop' more when including front raises. Most would roll their eyes at this but I notice a difference. Yates swore by front raises and said you simply can't get full development out of the delts by just relying on presses. I never agreed with this and thought it made zero sense on paper until I tried it myself.

That's a great post, that's kind of what I was wondering about front raises as far as shoulder health movement.

On the topic of oly lifters, obviously not everyone is going to train exactly the same. I am going of off what someone who was on the Soviet Union national weightlifting team experienced in his training. Supposedly the Bulgarians used a similar approach to isolation work from what he told me.